The Oswald Clergy Burnout Scale: reliability, factor structure and preliminary application among Australian clergy

This study assesses the Oswald Clergy Burnout Scale (OCBI), the psychometric properties of which have not been previously described. Analysis of responses from a large number (N  = 3,012) of ministers in charge of Australian congregations showed that the scale’s internal reliability was satisfactory, and that the scale could be represented by two factors, identified, respectively, as the personal and social aspects of burnout. This structure was supported by confirmatory factor analysis. Several demographic and job-related variables that might relate to burnout were regressed on the total, personal and social factor scores. Age is the predominant (negative) predictor of burnout as measured by the total scale and the personal factor scores. All variables predict burnout as measured by the social factor. However, in all models, the predictor variables account for no more than 5% of the total variance. These findings suggest that demographic factors and working conditions are poor predictors of burnout among clergy

Congregational bonding social capital and psychological type : an empirical enquiry among Australian churchgoers

This study explores the variation in levels of bonding social capital experienced by individual churchgoers, drawing on data generated by the Australian National Church Life Survey, and employing a five-item measure of church-related bonding social capital. Data provided by 2065 Australian churchgoers are used to test the thesis that individual differences in bonding social capital are related to a psychological model of psychological types (employing the Jungian distinctions). The data demonstrated that higher levels of bonding social capital were found among extraverts (compared with introverts), among intuitive types (compared with sensing types) and among feeling types (compared with thinking types), but no significant differences were found between judging types and perceiving types

Psychological type and work-related psychological health among clergy in Australia, England and New Zealand

A sample of 3,715 clergy from Australia, England and New Zealand completed two indices of work-related psychological health, the Scale of Emotional Exhaustion in Ministry (negative affect) and the Satisfaction in Ministry Scale (positive affect), together with a measure of Jungian psychological type, the Francis Psychological Type Scales. The data were employed to establish three issues: the level of work-related psychological health among clergy; the psychological type profile of clergy; and the relationship between psychological type and individual differences in work-related psychological health. The data demonstrate that clergy display high levels of positive affect coupled with high levels of negative affect; that the predominant psychological type profile of clergy prefers introversion over extraversion, sensing over intuition, feeling over thinking, and judging over perceiving; and that psychological type is able to predict differences in work-related psychological health among clergy. Clergy who prefer introversion and thinking experience lower levels of work-related psychological health than clergy who prefer extraversion and feeling. The implications of these findings are discussed for developing effective and healthy Christian ministry

Convergence improvement for coupled cluster calculations

Convergence problems in coupled-cluster iterations are discussed, and a new iteration scheme is proposed. Whereas the Jacobi method inverts only the diagonal part of the large matrix of equation coefficients, we invert a matrix which also includes a relatively small number of off-diagonal coefficients, selected according to the excitation amplitudes undergoing the largest change in the coupled cluster iteration. A test case shows that the new IPM (inversion of partial matrix) method gives much better convergence than the straightforward Jacobi-type scheme or such well-known convergence aids as the reduced linear equations or direct inversion in iterative subspace methods.Comment: 7 pages, IOPP styl

Indifferente en Labiele Evenwichten in Economische Stelsels

In English: Unstable and Indifferent Equilibria in Economic Systems, Revue de l’Institut International de Statistique, Vol. 9, No.1/2, 1941, pp. 36-5

Don’t be surprised by Abbott’s comments about ‘lifestyle choices’

Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s claim this week that people living in remote communities were making a “lifestyle choice” that taxpayers shouldn’t be obliged to fund was not just the result of an unguarded moment. Rather, the phrase reveals an underlying view that social circumstances are the responsibility of individuals, rather than societies. Commentators as well as Abbott’s top advisers on Indigenous affairs were quick to criticise the characterisation. Others suggested it was just another prime ministerial gaffe that shouldn’t distract us from the real issues. Abbott is infamous for his gaffes and “dad jokes”, but this was not one of those moments. A day after he made the remark, the prime minister defended his use of the phrase on the Alan Jones Show. Sounds familiar For those of us who work in, or observe, public health, using a phrase like “lifestyle choice” to shift responsibility away from the government is familiar territory. For decades, the risk factors of chronic diseases such as heart disease or type-2 diabetes were described as the “diseases of lifestyle”, rooted in individual choice. But chronic diseases actually have a plurality of causes that include genetics, environment, and social and economic circumstances as well as behaviour. To reduce them to individual choices misrepresents what we know about these complex diseases and places an unjustified burden of responsibility on individuals

Big Food with a regional flavour: how Australia’s food lobby works

Criticism of the food industry has itself become a niche industry. But the tendency to embrace a US-centric conception of how the industry works risks masking local variants and inhibiting a targeted response in other countries. Since the 2001 book Fast Food Nation, a spate of books, films and documentaries on the American food industry have helped to shape the popular idea of “Big Food”. The food industry is depicted as a highly organised set of multinational food and beverage lobbyists peddling the global diet of sugary drinks and highly processed, energy-dense salty foods – akin to tobacco industry lobbyist Nick Naylor in the 2005 film Thank You For Smoking. But although it is highly globalised, the food industry is far from homogeneous. Big Food in Australia is not the same as the industry in the United States, where much of the popular media has come from. Still, that doesn’t mean Australian food and beverage lobbying is benign. Responding to the threat posed by the food industry to public health locally requires a clear understanding of food industry tactics in the context of Australia’s political and lobbying culture

The psychological type profile of Christians participating in fellowship groups or in small study groups: Insights from the Australian National Church Life Survey

The Australian National Church Life Survey draws on psychological type theory to facilitate insights into the connection between individual psychological profiles and preferences for different religious expressions. Drawing on data provided by 2355 participants in the 2006 congregation survey, this analysis profiles those members of church congregations who are drawn to participation in small prayer, discussion or Bible study groups, or to participation in fellowship and social groups. The key findings are that extraverts and feeling types are over-represented in the fellowship and social groups and that intuitive types are over-represented in small prayer, discussion or Bible study groups

Broken-Symmetry Unrestricted Hybrid Density Functional Calculations on Nickel Dimer and Nickel Hydride

In the present work we investigate the adequacy of broken-symmetry unrestricted density functional theory (DFT) for constructing the potential energy curve of nickel dimer and nickel hydride, as a model for larger bare and hydrogenated nickel cluster calculations. We use three hybrid functionals: the popular B3LYP, Becke's newest optimized functional Becke98, and the simple FSLYP functional (50% Hartree-Fock and 50% Slater exchange and LYP gradient-corrected correlation functional) with two basis sets: all-electron (AE) Wachters+f basis set and Stuttgart RSC effective core potential (ECP) and basis set. We find that, overall, the best agreement with experiment, comparable to that of the high-level CASPT2, is obtained with B3LYP/AE, closely followed by Becke98/AE and Becke98/ECP. FSLYP/AE and B3LYP/ECP give slightly worse agreement with experiment, and FSLYP/ECP is the only method among the ones we studied that gives an unaceptably large error, underestimating the dissociation energy of nickel dimer by 28%, and being in the largest disagreement with the experiment and the other theoretical predictions.Comment: 17 pages, 7 tables, 7 figures; submitted to J. Chem. Phys.; Revtex4/LaTeX2e. v2 (8/5/04): New (and better) ECP results, without charge density fitting (which was found to give large errors). Subtracted the relativistic corrections from all experimental value

The psychological-type profile of lay church leaders in Australia

A sample of 845 lay church leaders (444 women and 401 men) from a range of 24 different denominations and movements (including house churches and independent churches) completed the Francis Psychological-Type Scales within the context of the 2006 Australian National Church Life Survey. The psychological-type profiles of these lay church leaders were almost identical to the type profiles of 1527 Australian churchgoers (936 women and 591 men) published in an earlier study by Robbins and Francis. The predominant types among female lay church leaders were ISFJ (21%), ESFJ (21%), and ISTJ (18%). The predominant types among male lay church leaders were ISTJ (28%), ISFJ (17%), ESTJ (13%), and ESFJ (12%). The SJ temperament accounted for 67% of the female lay church leaders and for 70% of the male lay church leaders. The strengths and weaknesses of the SJ leadership style are discussed